GRUJIC SAYS CROATIA HAS EVIDENCE ABOUT 300 CROATS BURIED IN SERBIA

( Editorial: --> 8885 ) ZAGREB, July 20 (Hina) - The Croatian Government's commission for detained and missing persons possesses evidence that at least 300 Croats who were imprisoned in Serbia after the Serbian aggression on Croatia in 1991 are buried there, commission president Ivan Grujic said on Monday. Yugoslavia claims no data on these people exists. The evidence was put forward to the International Commission for Missing Persons and the UN Commission for Human Rights, Grujic told reporters in Zagreb before a continued closed two-day meeting with the Yugoslav Commission for Humanitarian Issues and Missing Persons. Asked if Belgrade would respond to Croatia's request for the evidence, the president of the Yugoslav commission Maksim Korac said he was not aware that Croatia would forward such a request and that he did not have data on those people. Grujic said Croatian negotiators would seek the liberation of persons detained in Yugoslav prisons since 1995 for alleged spying. He recalled Yugoslavia committed to do so according to the Dayton peace agreement. Korac did not say what would happen to these people, but admitted that Yugoslav prisons did detain "a little under 20 persons" sentenced under Yugoslav laws on account of "classic spying". Croatia is searching for an additional 1,866 detained, missing and persons forcefully taken away. Grujic said negotiations would focus on every missing person from the Danube river region, western Slavonia and Banovina. Yugoslavia's Korac said he would demand the remaining protocols and the turnover of the remains of 600 people. Yugoslavia will also demand answers relating to the fate of five Yugoslav pilots, young Yugoslav soldiers, those killed in attacks on barracks, and soldiers from Niksic, Savnik and Donja Koliba, Korac said. The current negotiations are the result of the Dayton peace agreement and agreements signed between the Foreign Ministers of Croatia and Yugoslavia. Also attending are representatives of the International Red Cross Committee and the International Commission for Missing Persons. (hina) ha 202147 MET jul 98